MEET the Rev R Jeremy Brooks. He serves full time with the hilariously-named Protestant Truth Society, and is a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Old Hill, Cradley Heath, West Midlands.
The homophobic Rev R Jeremy Brooks
This little sweetheart doesn’t much like the idea of gays getting hitched “on religious premises”. In fact, he is so against the concept that he has started a petition which states:
The Protestant Truth Society (PTS) calls upon HM Government not to pass any legislation to allow the registration of civil partnerships on religious premises. It affirms the biblical teaching that marriage can only be between one man and one woman, and that any civil partnership registration has no place in any church building or on any other religious premises. It calls upon HM Government to do everything in its power to support the uniqueness of traditional marriage.
So far the petition has attracted 2,341 signatures.
But don’t despair. A counter-petition has been launched here by Stefan Bertram-Lee, which calls on the government to:
Amend the current marriage laws so that marriage is legal irrespective of the gender of the couple. At the moment a gay couple may enter into a civil partnership which grants them all the same rights as a married heterosexual couple but they cannot be married. This is pointless discrimination rooted in age old bigotry.
So far 2,410 have signed it, so it’s looking like a close-run race.
Brooks, by the way, can be contacted at jeremybrooks@protestant-truth.org
Just sayin’ so’s you know ….
Hat tip: Vince
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 12th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Have you seen their website? Whenever I read the idiot ramblings of these retards, it never ceases to amaze me how they actually manage to breath and walk at the same time.
September 12th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
“Truth”. Jeremy reminds me of Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland. “When I use a word it means what I want it to mean. Neither more nor less.”
I wonder about Jeremy’s views on slavery which his bible sanctions.
September 12th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Well, the more people see and hear these loony toons the more people stay away from them.
September 12th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Gaydar alert on that photo……Another Protestant protesting too much?
September 12th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
@Ivan. Does invite questions, doesn’t it? In their attitudes there is such a vehement readiness to deny and such a meaness of attitude that goes beyond the normal. It’s as if any flexibility, any kindness in fact, allows through feelings they just have to repress. In some of the infamous USA cases words of denial hid their forbidden sexual activity.
September 12th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Everybody should have the right to get married in a church if they are barmy enough to want to. What I can’t understand is why gay people should want to be part of any religious organization that obviously hates them.
September 12th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Ivan
Completely agree – the man is living a lie. Well, several lies actually.
September 12th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Protestant Truth, Anglican Mainstream, Christian Concern……these wowsers have a knack of picking inaccurate names for their groups, don’t they.
By the way, looking at that shirt and thinking someone should remind Jeremy what Levicticus has to say about mixed fibres. Are devout Christians allowed to stone themselves, or would that get up the noses of the pro-lifers?
September 12th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
@Stuart H. Regarding innacurate names I was confronted by a man, with a bible clutched to his chest, who asked, “Have you heard the good news?” The good news was that Jesus was “alive” and I could be saved. No evidence was available to support this remarkable fact about Jesus being alive. Although I discovered that the “aliveness” was in his heart and could soon be in mine. All I needed to do was “allow him to enter.” Why an omnipotent god needed me to “allow” him to do anything was not explained although there were some rambling comments about “the wish for salvation had to come from you.” Seemed that god was not 100 per cent omnipotent.
At that point he sidled off to rejoin his group who were detaching themselves and targetting individual passers.
September 12th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
I loved it when these fools stopped me in the streets of London and declared that “Jesus died for your sins”. I would always wipe the silly smiles off their faces by retorting: “No he didn’t. He died for his OWN damn sins!”
Remind me to check what that is in Spanish – though I have to say that here on the Costa Blanca I am only ever accosted by Jehovah’s Witnesses who don’t tend to say that.
Three of them recently managed to penetrate my heavily-gated apartment block, got up to the 31st floor, and rang my doorbell at 9 am on a Saturday morning – just three hours after I got to bed after partying all night.
I never knew I had so many Spanish epithets in my limited vocabulary.
September 12th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
@Barry Duke: The usual opener for Jehovah’s Witnesses who penetrate to my door is, “Are you worried about the state of the world and do you know that it can be changed?”
However, I think they have given up on me as visits seem to have ceased.
September 12th, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Here’s another of them, with a lot to say about homosexuality, and boy, does he have an inflated opinion of himself:
http://reasonablechristian.blo.....-myth.html
PS You MUST read the comments!
September 12th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
barriejohn:
Summat I’ve picked up on a lot lately, and there it is again in Charlie-boy’s comment at 8:07. There’s verses in Matthew, Mark and Luke, all directly attributed to Jesus, encouraging selling worldly goods and giving the proceeds to the poor, but what verse do they always trot out? John 3:36, not attributed to Jesus; “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Not that I’d accuse them of cherry-picking through self-interest, of course!
Totally OT but here’s some more Bible-inspired love and kindness.
September 12th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
He’s priceless. He actually accuses liberals of being “anti-scientific” and “anti-intellectual”, and of wanting to return the world to the “superstition and ignorance” of the dark ages. But haven’t we heard this bit somewhere before?
I do not believe expressing a public opinion on heresy constitutes “persecution.” The persecution is on the part of the world which is hostile to Christianity and to Christian values. When Christians stand for the truth against immorality the world comes quickly to side with evil and those like yourself who twist the Scriptures to their own destruction.
I think he’d be burning us at the stake if he could get away with it!
September 13th, 2011 at 12:03 am
barriejohn:
If I can be forgiven for a bit of self-linking…
September 13th, 2011 at 12:05 am
@Broga,
However, I think they have given up on me as visits seem to have ceased.
I haven’t had them round for quite some time either. Which is a pity really, as I’d love to engage with them on the doorstep – if my wife lets me. She knows how I’d be and I think she’s determined to head me off at the pass if she can, and be more decent/less antagonistic than I would be!
*is disabled, has been offered a miracle cure more than once*
September 13th, 2011 at 12:44 am
@barriejohn,
Thanks for that link to Charlie’s blog. Amazing stuff. The arrogance! Mad as a bicycle too, clearly. Couple of gems in there:
“What I constantly lack is the stupidity to accept on someone else’s authority a “myth” that exists only in someone’s mind/psyche.”
That’s clearly not true, since he believes in god.
“I could care less what you or any other person stupid enough to believe that stuff says. You’ll have to do better than offer “testimonies.” Give me some hard empirical science.”
How funny – that’s exactly how I feel about religious nutcases.
September 13th, 2011 at 2:10 am
Hang on, if this jesus character supposedly died for “our” sins, how come lot’s of his attachments tell us that “jesus is alive”. If he’s ‘alive” then he’s not dead and that means the silly little fabrication was confused and didn’t die for our sins, or anyone’s for that matter. They also love telling us that he “sacrificed” himself for our “salvation”. But he supposedly didn’t do that either because the myth states that he magically came back to life and zapped himself skyward to be with himself and the other figment in Tahiti, oops paradise. This is nonsensicle rubbish that deserves nothing more than being laughed at.
September 13th, 2011 at 4:46 am
Could someone explain why people feel the need to undergo a religious service to get married. I underwent a civil service and was married. What is the big deal? If they get a christian service will they then under go a muslim service and a buddhist service and a hindu service will this make them more married? Many couples have no service whatsoever and still think themselves married. I think religions are crazy but I,m not supporting anyone at tilting at none existant windmills.
September 13th, 2011 at 8:39 am
Dionigi:
The point is that if they want to do so, they should be able to do so. Anything less is the definition of discrimination.
September 13th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
@Broga. I can’t top my Mrs’s response when approached by a chump who asked if she’d heard the good news.
“Don’t tell me, you got a job?”
September 13th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Whenever I’m confronted by these people and their ‘truth’ I tell them I’m a sinner, destined for hell, as there’s nothing I feel I have to atone for. And if you’re gay and want a religious ceremony, find a church where you’re accepted as you are. We have them in Holland, surely there must be others?
September 13th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
@Barry Duke:
You didn’t call them a bunch of pundejos (sp?), did you?
September 13th, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Har Davids – there are churches that will accept gay people, the trouble is in the UK the law as it currently stands prevents these churches from marrying them even if they want to, because churches can only provide marriages and not ‘civil partnerships’. Civil partnerships are all that are available to gay couples in the UK, and though they provide identical legal rights and status to marriage, they have a different name. This is purely to placate petty homophobes who are incensed at the idea of a gay marriage being called a marriage.
September 13th, 2011 at 8:32 pm
JMW: I have been trying to explain that same point elsewhere today. These bigots are campaigning to maintain a situation where a same-sex union cannot be carried out in a place of worship. And just remember what “liberal” Rowan Williams had to say on the matter:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....liams.html
(Look at the comments too!)
September 14th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Good point, barriejohn. You’d think the religious would be against restrictions on what places of worship can choose to take part in, wouldn’t you? This is a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It is rather telling that they wish to prevent religious institutions from having a choice for fear that they will use that choice to treat homosexuals like ordinary people. And then where will we be?
September 16th, 2011 at 6:14 pm
I, Father Cock, am calling upon upon HM Government to refuse to bow down to this blatant attack on the human right of free choice. The petition is founded upon the same religious thinking that religion can push the principles of democracy upon the basis that it is stipulated in long-disproven ancient tomes written by haggard old blokes in dusty beards who believe that Your Majesty shouldn’t even lead the Kingdom. I call upon the government to defend the core of the principles of democracy, the freedom to choose one’s own destiny.
P.S. Fuck Fundamentalists